How to choose the name of your dog

Choosing the name of your dog

As ruled by the Société Centrale Canine in 1926, the name of all breed dogs born in the same year now starts with the same letter. This is for the obvious purpose of making it easier for canine workers.

From the outset, it was decided to exclude the letter Z because of the limited choice of dog names it offers… at least in French. Over the years, the Central Kennel Society finally took into account the breeders’ complaints, suggestions and recommendations and decided to abolish the letters K, Q, W, X, Y and Z as well.

It is therefore important to note that in order to appear in the book of origins (Le LOF), your dog’s name, if it is a pedigree dog, must begin with the letter attributed to the year of its birth. There are different bodies around the world that are responsible for determining these letters. In the United States, for example, it is the American Kennel Club (AKC), while in Canada it is the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC). Although the letter changes from one country to another, the fact remains that in most countries they follow the alphabetical order from year to year.

It is good to specify that this is only a criterion for entering a competition for a pedigree dog. There is no legal obligation there, but this can remain essential to know for the breeding of dogs. Just as it can be for the owner of a pedigree dog who is considering having his dog participate in animal contests.

Which one to choose?
Above all, it is important to know that the dog’s final name is only on the dog’s identity papers. If you want to call it Fifou in your everyday life, you do what you want! What is important is to choose a daily name that is easy to pronounce, fast, and rather gay. For example, we have a Husky named “The temptation of cool water”, we nicknamed him Louna and Petit loup => Ptit loup => Tilou… But when I want to work on training the order of the callback (come to the foot) for example, it is important to have a signal that speaks well to his dog. You can learn more about the recall at https://www.comportementaliste-gironde.fr/blog-education-canine/432-apprendre-pied-chien.html

Dog name for French-speaking countries
In 2018, in the main French-speaking countries, the first letter to be assigned to dogs is as follows:

France: the dog’s name in 2018 must begin with the letter O.
Belgium: the dog’s name in 2018 must begin with the letter R.
Switzerland: the name of the dog does not take into account the year in Switzerland. The breeding of dogs is done in the following way. The breeder takes a name beginning with the letter A for the first litter, B for the second litter and so on.
I’ll give you one last tip to choose the name of your dog, you can use this technique which is quite legal. You must use the letter of the year in question as O but you wanted to call your dog Boby so you can on the papers call it “O’ Boby”.